Jade completes £4M expansion to boost growth and innovation

Jade, the window and door industry’s most renown and prolific supplier of manufacturing, engineering and tooling solutions for the window and door industry has completed the renovation and refurbishment of its new 30,000 ft² facility in Coventry. This achievement is the culmination of a £4 million investment plan designed to position the company for significant year on year growth both within the UK, and potentially beyond.

As a key player in the UK window manufacturing sector, Jade’s knowledge and expertise in the evolution of fabrication means that its influence has been experienced at some level by nearly every player across the industry – both PVC-U and aluminium. Directors Adam Jones and Sean Mackey recognised that they needed to transform itself from a local ‘owner managed’ business, establishing a polished, professional structure and creating a framework that will support its projected growth.

“For nearly two decades we have had an amazing time working with everyone from the major systems houses to many smaller independent fabricators, solving manufacturing problems and helping them achieve greater efficiencies and improved product quality. But it was clear to us that operationally we needed to make some major adjustments if we wanted to continue with that good faith and those strong relationships in the future,” commented Sean Mackey. “And while investment in the new facilities has given us the physical ability to grow, there has also been massive operational restructuring going on behind the scenes.”

This restructuring has been driven by managing director Gareth Davies, who joined Jade a year ago with the specific brief to bring corporate level organisation to a much-loved company that had gone through several years of growth, both organic and through acquisition. In 2017 in particular Jade made several significant purchases, including Saltech Machines Ltd, Edgwick Sheet Metals and 50% of Kombimatec.

“Jade faced a choice – it had carved out a comfortable groove for itself in the industry where it could happily coast along, but probably end up losing market share,” added Gareth Davies. “However, I could sense that both Sean and Adam had the hunger and the ambition to continue growing, and the market itself still had massive opportunities that could be enjoyed by reframing the way in which the company organised itself. The skills and the expertise were there – Jade just needed to refine its messaging.”

A large part of that messaging has been to move away from the ‘engineering’ focus of Jade, and highlight the key solutions that they bring to manufacturers. This formed the basis of its initial rebrand a couple of years ago, when it clarified key service areas through separate divisions – JadeTooling, JadeMachines and JadeConsult. The company is now launching a fourth ‘division’ – JadeBespoke – a sheet metal fabrication solution which specifically creates ancillary products such as racking and assembly benches for window manufacturers.

“Every aspect of the manufacturing process requires a subtly different approach, from designing and developing the tooling, to integrating different processes, storage and maintenance. It was important to create a framework which gave us, and our customers, the clarity to see where challenges might lie and solutions found,” continued Adam Jones. “We now have a clear-cut route for manufacturers to take, from the moment the profile comes through the door, and the finished product leaves it.”

Sean and Adam were particularly cognisant of the fact that Jade had been built on strong personal relationships, and that could potentially leave Jade, and its customers, vulnerable.

“While we have every intention of continuing to be the ‘face’ of the business – and indeed there are so many people out there we consider close personal friends – establishing systems that could run without us was a crucial element of futureproofing for both Jade and our customer base,” said Sean Mackey. “In the very unlikely event that we won the Euromillions and decided to see out our days on a tropical beach somewhere, we wanted to make sure our customers would not notice our absence! The reality is, though, that this investment has freed up our time. So our customers will probably be seeing even more of us.”

E: sales@jade-eng.co.uk